by Blake Cargill – January 2013
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Transitioning from college into the work force always poses challenges and growing from them is necessary for success.
Jay Kinderknecht (S3, ’12) first interned with the New York Mets following his junior year in the S3 program at Baylor. “It was great getting exposure to several areas of the Mets organization,” said Jay. “While I started in a CRM position, I grew into sales, marketing, and gameday operations roles as well.”
[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”275px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]”Jay was our first intern specializing in working with our newly launched CRM database. He was an integral part our team, providing assistance in training, prospecting, and lead generation for our sales team. Jay was a top performer in his intern class and has been able to translate the skills he learned into a successful professional career.”
Brian Towers
Director, Inside Sales
New York Mets
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After considering offers from professional sports teams during his senior year, Kinderknecht decided he wanted to work in the college sports environment. Jay started working for IMG at the University of South Florida as an Account Executive in June of 2012.
Raised in Columbia, Missouri, Kinderknecht had to make many adjustments when living in South Florida. “Professionally I knew what to expect, but personally it was hard,” Jay shared recently. “The culture was a lot different from my experiences living in Missouri, Texas, or New York.”
While working at South Florida, Kinderknecht gained valuable lessons in the selling of sports. As an account executive, he was the point of contact for customers buying tickets. Jay said he learned through this, “how much preparation and thought should go into the product before you sell it.”
Using leverage is an aspect of ticket selling Kinderknecht gained when South Florida hosted Kansas State University in football. South Florida required groups to double-up on purchases in order to get tickets for this game. If a group brought at least 20 people to the Kansas State game, the purchase also required them to do the same for any other game. The high demand for tickets enabled South Florida to do this. They had no problem selling tickets even with the tie-in requirement for group sales.
Timothy Riva, a co-worker, said of Jay, “His unquestioned work ethic was proven by the results he was able to achieve with our USF staff.” Another co-worker, Bryan Mathis, added, “Jay displayed a strong work ethic and incredible attention to detail. But most importantly, he had a sincere desire to make our team as strong as it could be.”
After fulfilling his initial contract with IMG, Kindernecht was hired as a sales executive for Order My Gear, a software company that works for different sporting goods companies. The company’s objective is to simplify the supply chain between sporting gear companies and high school teams, groups, or organizations.
Kinderknecht is excited about the new opportunities this position presents, as well as the leadership in place. “I know I am working with someone who has my professional and personal best interests in mind.” Kinderknecht will also be given more responsibility through the position. He will travel more and sell a broader range of products than at IMG.
Kinderknecht says that he now welcomes challenges. The new position will pose different challenges and present new opportunities. He believes working with Order My Gear will strengthen his track record and help him become successful in the future.